Longing for You Ep 5 continues RISE in ratings – places 3rd on cable TV

Photo courtesy ENA

According to Nielsen Korea, the mystery drama Longing for You’s ratings rose slightly again last night, meaning ratings have continued to increase for the drama as every new episode is released.

This time, Longing for You, Episode 5 ratings were 2.41 percent nationwide, which is slightly up from its previous episode’s 2.05 percent.

In Seoul, the drama saw a similar increase with Longing for You, Episode 5 ratings at 2.62 percent, which is an increase from Episode 5’s 2.15 percent.

Those ratings are still quite low, even for an ENA drama, but as the drama sees an increase with every new episode, hopefully they will continue to rise.

International viewers not so enamoured of Longing for You

Audiences outside South Korea, however, seem less enamoured of Longing for You with viewers that use My Drama List currently rating the drama just 7.9 out of 10 and with many commenting the main lead is simply “annoying”.

Comments range from:

Idiotic plot and acting… The ML, the second female lead, the main female lead… Zero chemistry like zero… Plot is all over the place. Comedic relief is quite inappropriatly placed.

to another commenter who seems to understand the male lead (Oh Jin Seon who is played by Na In Woo) much better:

Oh Jin Seong is a very polarizing character, you either love him or you hate, few have a middle ground with him. I think he has been purposely written to be the opposite of almost every other character in this drama. He is without filter in action or speech.

This makes him the polar opposite to nearly every other character we see. What you see is what you get with him. He has no hidden agenda. He is honest with himself, maybe even too much so.

When discussing Go Young Joo with his brother he was honest enough to recognise he did have feelings for her, but also didn’t believe he was worthy of her.

In a softer character these qualities would be admired.

Personally, I agree with the second commenter and am intrigued to see where Oh Jin Seong’s character goes from here.

Longing for You airs on ENA every Wednesday and Thursday at 21:00 (KST), with both Viki and Netflix streaming the drama in select regions.

About Michelle Topham

Brit-American journalist based in Austria, former radio DJ at 97X WOXY, and Founder/CEO of Leo Sigh. I've covered K-drama, K-pop, J-pop and music news for over a decade.